Kansas NRCS Organic Training Program

Kansas NRCS Organic Training Program

Summary

The Kansas Rural Center (KRC), in partnership with others, will organize six trainings on organic farming systems and certification for Kansas State NRCS personnel over a two year period. The trainings will include classroom activities and farm tours on a regional basis in the state to familiarize participants with working organic farms and practices. KRC will compile and develop training materials, and develop a network of organic farmers as teachers, mentors and resources.

The primary audience is Kansas Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) staff with a secondary audience of County Extension Agents.

NRCS staff will gain confidence in helping farmers with organic transition questions and the new EQIP Organic Initiative Program; they will develop an understanding of organic farming practices and the certification process and how standard conservation practices can help organic farms. KRC will identify a network of organic farmers as educators, mentors, and resources.

Intermediate outcomes include NRCS enrolling more Kansas farmers in the new EQIP Program, and Extension being able to answer client questions on organic farming and the new EQIP Program. Long-term outcomes include NRCS and Extension staff having internal experts on organic farming, the land grant university undertaking organic farming research and organic outreach, and KRC facilitating a formal network of organic farmers as Technical Service Providers with NRCS, or as independent mentors or resources. Pre- and post evaluation surveys will be conducted on all training participants. Verbal evaluation wrap-up sessions will conclude each training. Kansas enrollment in EQIP Organic Initiatives Program will be monitored each year.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Below are the objectives as listed in the work plan. Accomplishments or updates for each of these are described below in the Accomplishments /Milestones section.

A. KRC will organize six workshops (3 per year). In year one (2010), three regional workshops will target NRCS staff reaching 90 participants. Workshop format will include classroom presentations, farmer panels, training materials, and a tour of an area organic farm. In Year two, three more workshops will be held focusing more on recruiting Extension personnel to attend.

B. Three organic farm tours will be held each year in conjunction with the training workshops.

C. KRC will develop and compile a training notebook, updating thee on an ongoing basis during the two years of the project. The notebook will include information on organic farming basics, organic certification process, the organic system plan, crop rotation planning guide, and a list of miscellaneous resources.

D. KRC will develop and maintain a base network of organic farmers as teachers, mentors and resources who may become official technical service providers (TSPs) for NRCS, or serve as independent mentors and teachers.

E. KRC will provide presentations to Extension and other resource professionals on organic farming and the EQIP Organic Initiatives Program so they can promote the program and help farmers enroll.

F. KRC will update its crop rotation planning guide and collaborate with KSU to update and revise its Organic Certification Bulletin for distribution.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Objectives A and B
KRC organized and conducted three training workshops across Kansas in September 2010. KRC staff met with NRCS state office staff early in the year to discuss the basic format of the training and preferred locations, as well as to review training materials used in a pilot training in August 2009. This joint planning team finalized the training format and agenda through E-mail communications and telephone calls throughout the spring and summer.

Each workshop covered one and a half days, with day one in a classroom setting with presenters in the morning, and a farmer panel in the afternoon, followed by short NRCS sessions on the nuts and bolts of the EQIP Organic Initiative Program implementation process at the county office level and according to NRCS rules. On day two, participants spent the morning touring an area certified organic farm and adjourned for travel home at noon.

The agenda for each meeting included:

Organic Agriculture 101 covering the background of organic farming, resource conserving aspects of organic production, and the basics of certification, presented by Kansas State University’s Dr. Rhonda Janke.

Transition Strategies for Organic Crop / Livestock Production & Certification covering the Organic System Plan, and Certification; and an overview of crop rotations, fertility, weed control, insect and disease prevention and treatment, and livestock practices. Ed Reznicek, organic farmer and general manager of Kansas Organic Producers, and part-time KRC staff, presented the transition strategies session.

Hoophouses 101 covering construction, production and management was presented by Dan Nagengast , KRC Executive Director and also experienced hoophouse farmer.

Transitioning to Organic: Strategies from Kansas Farmers- A Panel of Organic Farmers from the Region. The panels included 3 or 4 organic farmers talking informally and answering questions for about two hours.

EQIP Organic Provision Technical Overview was provided by NRCS State Office staff.

Day two featured a three- hour farm tour of an area certified organic farm.

The three workshops were held in three different agronomic regions of the state with 112 attending including four local County Extension agents. The Kansas SARE Coordinator attended all three. The Kansas NRCS State Conservationist made the trainings mandatory for his staff, aiming to have someone in each county office with organic training. (The 112 count does not include presenters and farmer panelists, which added 12 more to the overall count.) NRCS staff attending represented 80 counties of the 105 counties in Kansas. KRC sent special invitations to all of the County Extension Offices surrounding the location of the training. Only four agents of the 15 to 20 counties we invited attended.

South Central Kansas Newton, Kansas, September 1-2, 2010 40 attended
Farm Tour at the farm of Mark Andres, Newton, Ks.
Southeast Kansas, Chanute, Kansas, September 8-9, 2010, 22 attended
Farm Tour of the farm of Roger and Jason Elliott, Chanute, Ks.
West Central Kansas, Scott City, Kansas, September 15-16, 2010, 50 attended the Farm tour of the farm of Jerome and Jason Berning, Scott City, Ks. (In 2011, workshops will be held in three other regions.)

Objective C
A training notebook with materials on organic certification, organic farming methods, and resources was provided to each participant. NRCS provided the physical notebooks for some, but also made the materials available on their resource sharing website for all Kansas NRCS. KRC provided all of the materials for the notebook, relying on existing materials from ATTRA, and various other resources, plus KRC’s crop rotation planning guide and copies of the presenter’s power point presentations.

Objective D
In the course of recruiting organic farmers as panelists, KRC staff discussed the Technical Service Provider (TSP) needs in Kansas with a number of farmers. So far no one has been interested in becoming a TSP for NRCS, and we have not identified any others. However, the organic farmers did identify a need for mentors or a support network. State NRCS staff have indicated that several local county level staff would be interested in meeting with the organic farmers as they develop some kind of support network if KRC would lead the effort.

Objective E
KRC presented information about the trainings to Extension personnel via both personal invitation letters to the agents in surrounding counties where the trainings were held, and announced it in their e-newsletter distributed to all agents in the state prior to the trainings. Participation was slim in 2010, but we are working to increase that for 2011.

Objective F
The project has not yet updated these guides or bulletins, planning on doing so in year two.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

While the State Conservationist could mandate his staff to attend, he could not mandate their active participation or involvement. We found that except for a very small minority, the NRCS staff were alert, attentive, inquisitive, and very much engaged in the presentations and discussions. Their questions ranged from the basics of certification and crop rotations to marketing queries to how to source organic seed and unique cover crop seed. Questions included how to provide cold storage for horticultural crops and how to store grain without chemicals. And at times, they engaged in lively discussions with the NRCS State staff on how existing NRCS conservation practice standards would work on an organic farm—which is an issue across the country as NRCS implements the Organic Initiative and struggles with adapting existing guidelines to fit an organic system and share that information with personnel across the country.

Training evaluations asking the participants to rank their knowledge before and after the training, and to rate the presentation and sessions for usefulness, and to list additional information or technical needs were collected at the end of each workshop. Out of the 75 returned surveys (and everyone did not respond to all of the questions) 71responded to questions to rank their knowledge before and after the training. Three claimed zero knowledge prior to the training, 63 felt they had beginning knowledge, and 5 felt they were knowledgeable. After the training, 21 moved from zero to beginning knowledge or maintained that beginning level, and 34 now claimed they were knowledgeable and felt they could provide technical information to clients.

Responding to questions on how the program contributed to their professional development, the most common responses were that the training provided them educational programming and new knowledge and technical mastery, and encouraged them to engage with new people and opportunities. When asked how they would share the information with their producer audience, the most responses were to “answer client questions”, “develop new contacts and partners” and to “bring new information into regular programming”.

According to both the evaluations and discussion afterward, the farmer panels and the farm tours were highlights for the majority of those attending. The benefits of listening to working organic farmers describe their operations and the challenges they faced in transition and the challenges they still face, and why they farm organically, and then seeing the system in place in the following farm tour, provided priceless .

Fifty-seven percent of those completing the evaluation claimed they would attend another training if it were available. The majority indicated they would recommend the training to others. The additional training needs identified included having more detailed or advanced sessions at one of the trainings next year, providing more detail on certification, inviting an inspector from one of the certifying entities to present, and additional information on crop rotations, cover crops, and equipment.

In year one, NRCS asked that the District Conservationists attend the training, and in year two, they are asking that other NRCS technicians attend from each county. Ks. SARE will also offer travel scholarships in year two to K-State Extension agents to encourage their participation, and we are working with others at KSU to find ways to engage the land grant.

Discussion with the State NRCS staff following the trainings touched on the organic farmers needs for information and assistance, beyond what they feel comfortable with yet. NRCS suggested that we explore helping the organic farmers form something similar to the “Residue Alliance” networks or groups that NRCS worked with in the early years of promoting adoption of no till. KRC plans to explore this idea in 2011.

In the 2009 Organic Initiative sign-up, prior to any NRCS trainings, Kansas had 14 contracts. In 2010, there were 54 contracts. While this increase is partly due to the inclusion of the new conservation practice for hoophouses or seasonal high tunnels, it is also due to increased publicity about the program and the information resources KRC was able to provide to NRCS as they implemented the program. Data is not yet available for 2011, and they have extended the sign up nationally to May 20, 2011.

Collaborators: